Have You Ever Seen A Flower Die?
by Spider RedNight
Summary: Freeze interview tapes - touched up on. I guess it's hard to explain that it's not directly script. No pairings  as per usual , mild language.
1. Tape I

Victor Fries waited. He and an armed security guard seemed to be lollygagging about in an unfamiliar hallway. No, that was probably just Freeze's mindset; he considered himself a busy individual with no time to stand about wondering where he was or why. Then again, he'd have time to ask. It was just unfortunate that they stripped his weapons from him – he was referring to, of course, the four OTHER guards that stood at the end of the hallway, two on each end. As if they could stop him if he really wanted to leave. Well… he DID want to leave, but not bad enough to have his suit shot at. He figured he could humour Strange for a bit, anyway. He looked down at the guard that escorted him to the blank, brown door they now stood in front of as he pressed a button on the wall, presumably a communication device.

"Prisoner's here, sir." He heard the TYGER guard say and Freeze turned his head slightly, condensation from his breath fogging up the interior of his helmet as he gazed at the two guards at the end of one side of the hallway. He placed his hands behind his lower back as if studying something. He exhaled; this wasn't how he wanted to spend the time he was already sentenced in this intolerable place. He felt as though it was slightly unfair to be called "prisoner", as he didn't even want to be there… then again, he was sure that NO one wanted to be there, but Freeze less than most. He knew what he wanted, he had hardly killed anyone since arriving and he figured he was doing a pretty good job of staying out of everyone's way.

"Very good. Send him in," He heard the intercom say. His eyes narrowed behind the gleaming red goggles. C'mere, boy. Sit. Stay. _Good_ boy. He snarled slightly at the thought; he didn't really care who was in control… except for this guy. He didn't know much about the man other than the fact that he was the reason why Freeze was behind bars… metaphorically speaking. Freeze remembered leaving Arkham Asylum on his own, but being brought to this place for virtually no reason shortly after. Well… if you could call seven months shortly after.

"But we haven't got the suit off him yet." The security guard responded, casting a glance up to Freeze, who looked down on him as if he were a lesser being. Like hell they were taking his suit; they already took his weapons, they weren't about to tug life support from off his body. "He's dangerous." To this, Freeze almost wanted to reply with some sort of derogatory response. _'Dangerous? Don't be naïve. Just because I can throw you down the hall with one arm doesn't mean I WILL.' _However, Freeze remained silent, keeping his hands behind his back; he wasn't really the type to make snide comments, anyway. There were several OTHER villains to do that, REAL villains, the ones people spent their time trying to join. "Are you sure?"

"Of course," The intercom replied smoothly, a little too quickly for Freeze's tastes. He turned his head to the door and looked down at the flashing red button on the wall. It somehow stood out against Freeze's own red-tinted goggles. "Victor Fries and I have much in common." Oho, so they did, did they? Freeze quirked what would've been an eyebrow if he had one. This man suddenly spiked up a whole point in his priorities list. "We will be fine." Freeze narrowed his gaze at the door, but continued to say nothing.

The TYGER guard looked up at Freeze once more for a brief moment before opening the door, allowing Freeze passage. Freeze lumbered past the guard, moving at a leisurely enough pace for one in a big suit. His legs made mechanical noises as they clunked on the floor of Hugo Strange's office. Freeze did a quick scan of the room; a solitary desk in the middle of it with two wooden chairs in front of it, presumably for patients or other people to sit in when there were mini-meetings. A doctorate was on the wall, a couple of file cabinets looked surprisingly organized, and a microphone was visible on his desk, hooked up to a complex-looking machine that was probably used to send messages throughout Arkham City. And… there was a small camera in the top corner of his room, which meant that they were being monitored. By the time he finished his scan, he had reached his destination and he glanced down at one of the chairs briefly before deciding that he probably couldn't manage it; standing didn't kill him. He heard the door click shut behind him. Now it was just him and Strange. Strange had his fingers crossed on his desk, looking up at Freeze with an air of confidence and nonchalance.

"Welcome to my facility," He said rather smugly, and Freeze decided that while he'd cooperate with him, he still wasn't fond of him. "Please, take a seat."

"I prefer to stand," Freeze replied, the first words he said since arriving. He decided to cut to the chase. "Why am I here?" He asked abruptly. Strange exhaled and smiled as his head slowly fell until he was glancing at the desk instead, as if what Freeze had asked was humorous.

"Oh, Victor. There will be plenty of time for that later." Freeze wasn't satisfied; Strange might've had time, but every minute of time Freeze had was precious and necessary for him; he couldn't afford 'plenty of time' to have his questions answered. "Right now I wish to get to know you." Freeze remained silent; of COURSE he wanted to, he WAS a doctor, after all. "Discover how you came to have such a… frosty outlook on life." Oh, ha ha. This guy could replace Joker as the world's worst joke-teller.

"I have nothing to say to you," Freeze replied shortly. He didn't want to talk to this man, especially if he was going to crack ice-puns the entire time. Freeze was already irritated, but that didn't seem to help. "You may have taken my weapons, but my suit still has considerable offensive capabilities," He pointed out suggestively. But why stop there? He leaned forward and brought a hand up chest-high. "I will freeze the marrow in your legs." He threatened with his cold, monotonous tone. "Each bone will shatter—" He clenched his hand quickly. "—and fracture—" His hand clenched tighter. "—while you remain completely aware of your impending paralysis, begging me to end you." With his conclusion, he opened his palm and made a sweeping gesture with his hand. He stared down at Strange, expecting him to become alerted and somewhat worried that Freeze wasn't above harming him, but nothing of the sort occurred. Strange kept his cool and didn't flinch at all whatsoever.

"I don't think that you will do that, Victor." He replied with that same smug tone, the one that Freeze was quickly getting irritated of as he lowered his hand slowly.

"Really?" Freeze replied in mock curiosity. "Why not?" He asked flatly. Indeed, this excuse should be good.

"Simple," Strange shrugged. "if you hurt me, your wife will die."


	2. Tape II

Freeze's helmet quickly hid itself amongst the metal that covered his neck and chest and the red tint from his goggles faded to reveal icy blue eyes that stared down at Strange with quiet intensity. "Where is she?" He demanded, taking a step forward aggressively. "Where is my wife?" He asked slowly, deliberately. If Strange said something like that, then it could only mean that his men did something with her while Freeze was standing there, talking as if he had all the time in the world. They had moved her, captured her, taken her away from him. He KNEW this was a bad idea.

"Nora is in safe hands," Strange replied in a friendly tone that Freeze could tell was mock. Safe hands. None were safe except for Freeze's; HE knew how to take care of her, HE knew where she was and HE knew to talk to her, comfort her. Nowhere was safe unless he knew about it. The thought made Freeze's blood pump, icy blood through stiff veins that rarely got excited or angry. He balled his hands into fists and he might've started quivering with anger had his suit not been so strong, so heavy. "Now, let's discuss an incident from your childhood."

"No." Freeze replied venomously, narrowing his eyes at Strange. This wasn't about him, it was about his wife. Helping her, letting her breathe and move and love. For all Freeze cared, Strange could have a heart attack right there and Freeze would walk out none the wiser. He didn't care about this man, he didn't care about his precious TYGER guards, he didn't care that the Joker was probably dying off somewhere, he didn't _care _about anyone else, including himself. All that mattered to him was Nora and her safety and well-being. Maybe, if he was abrupt enough, Strange would give up easily and send Freeze on his… "merry" way. Give him back his wife and let him go back to what he's been working on for years. Strange, however, had a different thought in mind.

"Then this is over," He said with a small shrug before leaning forward and starting to press the button on his intercom. "Guard!" He said as the buzzer rang; this was exactly how to get what he wanted from Victor, and sure enough…

"Wait!" Freeze interjected, his tone slightly different than before. This time, it was more… desperate. They were _not_ about to harm his wife. He paused for a moment; was this really the only way? Would he have to answer questions and talk about himself like he was having a book written about him? He sighed inwardly. "What do you wish to learn?" He asked in a resentful manner that said 'I'm only humouring you because you're holding my wife hostage.' Strange blinked slowly behind his tinted glasses and glanced down at a piece of paper on his desk. Freeze hadn't noticed it until it was brought to his attention; it was presumably a file about him and, for some reason, something on it intrigued Strange. Apparently something about them having something in common. His eyes scanned the papers and he gazed at it as he spoke.

"Your early years were troubled." He remarked. Freeze turned his head faintly and focused his own gaze on a blank portion of the wall.

"I was not a sociable child," He admitted; it was true, he wasn't exactly the most outgoing kid on the block. While everyone else was busy playing and roughhousing and other assorted children's hobbies, Freeze was inside the safety of his house, creating things and taking things apart to see how they worked. "But that is all." He added simply, still partially hoping that it'd be enough for Strange and that he'd let both Freeze and Nora go.

Strange wasn't done, apparently. "Even your parents disowned you. They sent you away to a reform school, correct?" He inquired. Freeze exhaled and kept his eyes on the wall. He wasn't sure if the memory saddened or angered him. Maybe a bit of both, but that was so many years ago. And yet, Freeze could almost remember it all.

"They did not understand my work," He replied in a rather dull monotone; no one understood his work. Perhaps that was a reason why he chose not to socialize; they were too busy frolicking in the naïve aspect of life to learn, to experiment.

"Your work?" Strange repeated, glancing down at the file. "According to a police report, you froze over a dozen of your neighbors' pets," He cast a quick look up at Freeze before returning his gaze to the paper. Freeze would've crossed his arms had his suit allowed it. The police just HAD to get involved.

"I've always had an interest in cryonic preservation," Freeze responded even though it might seem obvious now. He started to hesitate on the next bit of information, but mentally shrugged it off; if he was going to waste time, he might as well do it in a fashion that didn't make it seem like he didn't want Nora back. "I didn't understand why my parents allowed our sick pets to die instead of attempting to save them." He explained, recalling the displeasure he felt when one of his dogs would pass away, one of the only friends he had in his earlier years. He didn't want any death, not from his family, any other kids on the block, no pets, no people… At least Victor wasn't a sociopathic antisocial. He considered himself honest, caring, gentle. "So I set about finding my own way," He continued, remembering the ideas that ran through his head when he was a child. "I intended to revive all those creatures," He said with honest intention; he wasn't a ruthless killer, he had a method to everything he did, past and present… mostly.

"But you didn't," Strange replied, a verbal knife that somewhat stung Freeze's brain. "which brings us to Nora." He concluded, glancing up at Freeze, who kept his eyes averted from Strange's etched face. Everything led to Nora, everything resulted in her. She was his everything, his life and work, his inspiration and devotion. He closed his eyes partially, lowering his head just a fraction of an inch.


	3. Tape III

p style="text-align: left;"There was a long pause. Since they were wasting time... Freeze used this time to think, to carefully pick his words. br /br /"Have you ever seen a flower die?" Freeze asked after minutes of introspection. "Watched something that was once so beautiful, so... full of life... collapse and rot from within...?" He got quieter as he asked the metaphorical question. He was staring at Strange now, staring with his cold eyes though they held no rage, only sadness and a profound /br /Hugo sat on the other side of his desk, maintaining his smug poker face. "You refer to Nora's illness?" He asked rather indifferently. Freeze turned his head and continued to look at the wall. It seems like yesterday when I first found her," He remembered quietly; the opening of a door, the panic that followed upon seeing her limp body on the floor, shaking fingers holding a phone that frantically dialed for 911... "It all happened so quickly. Suddenly, I was losing her." His eyes danced on the wall as his attention focused inward upon his own /br /Hugo wrote down a few things and glanced back up at Freeze. "Did you seek help?" He leaned forward and put his hands on his desk. "What about your employer, Gothcorp?" He inquired. There was another pause but Freeze didn't care; HE was being held there so he could "waste" all the time he /br /"I hid it from them," Freeze explained. "diverting resources from Gothcorp's research in an attempt to find the cure, but in the end, I failed," He sighed. "Time was running out. I knew that if I was discovered, Nora would die."br /br /"Why take that risk?" Hugo asked in what he probably thought was earnest but just came across as mocking to Freeze. br /br /"Do you know what it is to love someone?" Freeze replied with subtle intensity in his voice, a hidden passion. "To really love them?" br /br /"No," Hugo replied, much too quickly for Freeze but the latter didn't care. It all made sense, NOW Freeze was successfully rolled over, exposing his vulnerability to a man who had no comprehension of what sacrifice was or what it meant to have a passion for life and /br /"Nora was all I could think of," Freeze contined. "I re-ran the diagnostics, re-examined every detail from every angle, certain that I had missed something," He lifted a hand and started pushing invisible buttons in front of him as if examining screens that weren't there. "I cursed myself for being so blind, so stupid," He swiped at the screens and pressed more buttons, his blue eyes darting wildly as they took in everything on the blank wall at once. "Surely there was a cure, I just needed more time," He stopped and his hand froze in mid-air. "And then I realized what I had to do." His hand dropped slowly back to his side, keeping his eyes fixed on a certain part of the wall. He blinked slowly and fell silent again./p 


End file.
